wage and not withhold any payroll taxes on it. And if you pay them below the standard deduction, which is $14,600 for 2024, they won't have any income tax on that money. And if you put $7k of that that into a Roth IRA in their name, it (and any growth from it) will never ever be taxed (because it's technically post-tax money going to the contribution). If you put $7k into a Roth IRA for a few years while they are kids, that $15k-$20k (or more if they are younger) could easily grow into multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars of completely tax free money.

So if you own a business and have kids under 18 and your business is doing well, you need to be paying your kids.

If you have an S-Corp (or an LLC that elects as an S-Corp), you do need to withhold payroll taxes. But there is a way around this - set up a separate LLC that the S-Corp contracts for work. Then the LLC pays the kids (without payroll taxes), but you still get the deduction for the S-Corp. This is what I did. I have a management LLC that has a contract with the S-Corp to provide services to the company, and the LLC hires my kids to provide those services. The S-corp pays the LLC and issues a 1099-MISC for those payments. The LLC then pays all it's expenses (including the wages for the kids) and makes a nominal profit ($100 or so) that is subject to self employment taxes. The rest is a write-off.